Acer Taking a Second Stab at Hybrid Android/Win XP Netbook

Back in October of last year, Acer went down a seldom travelled path by serving up a 10-inch netbook (shown above) running both Windows XP and Android. It received lukewarm reviews early on, with most of the criticism stemming from the lack of access to the Android Market and a dedicated Gmail app. It ran Flash, though, and seemed to improve battery life, and it wasn’t a huge amount of extra work for Acer as the company basically added the Android boot option to its already-popular Aspire One D250 model.

If memory serves, after the launch Acer remained rather wishy-washy as to whether or not it’d attempt another Android-based netbook, saying things like “We’re always researching new and exciting opportunities and whatnot, etc.”

According to PC World, it looks like Acer’s getting ready to release another Android/XP hybrid netbook. And wouldn’t you know it, it’ll apparently be found on the 10-inch Aspire One D255 model–the successor to the D250.

The AOD255 was shown off at a computer show in Taipei recently and will carry a price of $11,900 in New Taiwan dollars, which is roughly equivalent to $375 in the US. Acer prices its hardware pretty aggressively, though, and those New Taiwan figures never seem to match up with US pricing when all is said and done. I’d guess the machine would cost $300 or less here in the states. There’s no word yet on if or when that might be, though.